By Rick Kaempfer
NOTHING LIKE PATTI
P
atti Haze remains one of the iconic
radio voices from the rock and roll
era in Chicago. Her sexy alto voice
and friendly demeanor graced the airwaves of every major rock station in
Chicago (save WXRT). She was on WLUP
(twice), WMET, WCKG, and CD 94.7.
Despite her incredible pedigree – as
arguably the Queen of Chicago Rock and
Roll radio—Patti had no intention of pursuing a radio career. Her start was similar
to the famous Lana Turner story. She was
discovered while working in the office at
WLAV in Grand Rapids. One day the station did a stunt, and allowed her to fill in
for one of the stars of the station (Ed
Buchanan). “At the end of the shift, the
program director came in the studio and
said, ‘You realize you’re a natural at this,
don’t you?” she recalls now. “Before I
knew it I was doing a
regular shift.”
She immersed herself in the work, and
dedicated herself to
learning the new craft.
They taught her about
the music, and she took
it from there. Her work
ethic was never a question. “My dad was a
General,” she says with
a laugh. “I lived with
the Great Santini!”
In 1977, her radio
travels led her to
Chicago’s
Loop
(WLUP). “I came to
town to do an on-air
audition
and
was
absolutely sure that I
blew it,” she says now.
“I thought I was terrible. But they called
me and offered me the job.” She has fond
memories of those days, but it becomes
clear when you talk to Patti, that she is a
people person. Her favorite memories
involve the people she worked with at
each of her radio stops, and the listeners
she met and spoke to over the years.
“That’s true,” she admitted. “I really
enjoyed the camaraderie. It was a different
era, though. In the pre-corporate era, radio
was a lot different than it is today.”
To illustrate her point, she relates a
story from when she was on WMET (95.5).
The Loop and WMET (The Mighty Met)
slugged it out in the ratings for several
years—and it was a real battle. “When the
Loop was running a contest, we got the
answers and gave the answers out to anyone who called,” she says with a laugh.
“Again, that was such a fun group of people to work with—Dave Benson, Bob
Stroud. I know I’m starting to sound like
one of those people who say everything
was great—but it really was. That was
such a great time.”
When Patti returned to the Loop in the
1980s, she was part of one of the most legendary lineups in radio history. The Loop
AM and FM were in the same hallway, and
at any given time some of the greatest
radio personalities in history bantered on
the air and off. “It is hard to believe how
much talent we had there,” she recalls.
“Johnny (Brandmeier), Steve (Dahl) &
Garry (Meier), Kevin (Matthews), Bobby
16 illinoisentertainer.com november 2016
Skafish. The unsung hero there was (production director) Matt Bisbee. He wasn’t
one of the big names, but he was every bit
as important as the rest of those guys.”
Of course, the Loop was also a bit of a
boys club in those days. The testosterone
bounced off the walls. When the boys got
a little out of hand, it was often Patti who
came in and told them to knock it off.
“There was a bit of that,” she admits with
a laugh.
But during those heady times, Patti
never got jaded, or lost her love of the
medium. “I used to walk down the street
and see the stress on people’s faces, and I
would think, ‘I am such a lucky person’. It
was such a privilege to do what I do every
single day. I mean, I absolutely loved
every second of being on the air.”
Patti Haze
In addition to working with some of
the radio greats, she got to interview some
of the rock and roll greats. Most of them
went incredibly well, but there was one
exception. “I remember one interview I
did with the Police. It was obvious they
didn’t want to be there. One of them was
reading the paper, another was pulling his
shirt over his head, and I shut off the
microphones and yelled at them. They
were much better after that.”
Patti remained in Chicago radio until
the turn of the century, with a very successful stint at WCKG, and again at
WXCD (94.7), but that last stop in Chicago
radio was a little on the unfulfilling side.
On November 29, 2000, she was on hand
for one of the strangest format changes in
radio history. “I went into a commercial
break,” she explains, “and the station
changed formats during that commercial
break. It was classic rock before the break
and alternative rock after (The Zone). That
was the last thing I did on Chicago radio.”
She later had a stint working in
Jacksonville, Florida, but Patti has been off
the air, and living in her home state of
Michigan for the past few years, raising
her daughter (now a student-athlete at
Michigan State University).
When she was asked if she would ever
consider a return to the radio dial in
Chicago, Patti did n’t hesitate for a
moment. “In a heartbeat,” she said. “I’d
love to get a chance to finish that break.”